The Tea Party Experi(ence)ment

For quite awhile now it seems we’ve gotten hit with what I would phrase as the Tea Party experiment-experience. You see, I’m a student of public administration and a combat veteran of the Iraq War. I know all too well that trying to turn a ship the size of the U.S. government is not easy.

Perhaps it’s my military background that has thought that if a ship is broken you find a way to fix it. But what some members of Congress, the Tea Party nuts, are trying to do is not just turn a ship or fix one but crash it into the rocks.

Lately, under the leadership of the Republicans and their Tea Party lunatics, we, as a nation, have hit new lows. As if the sequester wasn’t bad enough. We’ve had to witness the shutting down of everything from national parks to the IRS and the furlough of over 400,000 government workers. Even worse, is the unfortunate news of casualties in Afghanistan and members of our military and their families not being given their benefits. Since the Tea Party Republicans took over the House of Representatives, they’ve wasted no time in going after so called “big government” and making an embarrassing spectacle of it.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-FL) optimized this by speaking gibberish for over 20 hours over Obamacare in the senate chambers. While railing against a health care law that was upheld by the U.S Supreme Court three years ago, he would later tell a group of reporters about his ordeal. An ordeal, he said, not unlike that experienced in Bataan during WWII where the Japanese force marched thousands of prisoners for 65 of miles over the course of five days. Not surprisingly, WWII veterans were offended. But Ted Cruz and his Tea Party counterparts didn’t stop at just offending a group of veterans, they delighted over shutting the government down. They went as far as threatening not to raise the federal debt limit and undermining the economy.

This all begs the question of why the GOP is still called the GOP or The Grand Ol’ Party? If the grandest thing they seem to do is speak of nonsense and shutting everything down while insulting everyone along the way, what’s so grand about that? Is it grand that important policy decisions like immigration reform goes unanswered? But perhaps my perception of the situation is wrong.

I’ve never steered a ship, but I would strongly guess that when steering a ship’s course, along the way a map is read and compass checked. When the majority of the American people are for Obamacare and against a government shutdown, then is when you read the map. When the heads of state (Japan & China), economists and CEOs of some of the biggest companies in the nation tell you that not raising the debt and not paying the bills will be catastrophic for not just our economy but the world’s, then is when you check the compass.

Of course, if you can’t read a map or compass and never even seen a ship like the Tea Party Republicans you shouldn’t be in office let alone a ship.

Deliberately steering your ship towards the rocks when your party begins to lose all relevance and respect is not grand, that’s disgusting.

Mario Rivas

Monday, 14 October 2013

Posted on October 14, 2013

About Mario Rivas

Mario Rivas is a former Marine and veteran of the Iraq War. He is an environmentalist and member of the Vets Voice Foundation, Operation Free and the Truman National Security Project. Mario is currently serving in the Californa Army National Guard.

Comments

I finally figured it out last evening. It came to me like a loud bell in the night. It is so obvious, how could I have missed the clues? What I am about to reveal might floor you so brace yourselves: The entire Tea Party phenomena is a left wing plot to destroy the Republican Party.

Ted Cruz is a Communist plant. His entire family are agents of Fidel Castro! Think about it: Teddy Boy’s dear old dad fought alongside Castro on the fifties and was instrumental in overthrowing the Batista regime. He now claims that he had no idea that the Bearded One was a commie. YEAH, RIGHT! NUDGE! NUDGE! WINK! WINK! After the evil-doers had that island in their treacherous claws, and Batista was safely living in disgraced exile, Fidel sent Papa Cruz over here by way of Canada – CLEVER! He was even able to fix himself up with an American wife. The perfect front! Old Man Cruz has been doing Castro’s dirty deeds ever since. He was even able to enlist his half-witted kid into the cause. There is no other other logical explanation – none.

Whether or not Ted is a willing participant in this conspiracy remains to be seen. My guess is that he is not. I mean, let’s face it – the guy is just so dumb. Whatever the case, the team of father and son have done their work well. As I write these words the “party of Abraham Lincoln” is self-destructing thanks in large part to commie-dupe, Ted Cruz. He has talked the Grand Old Party into cheerfully committing political suicide. I submit to you that Ted’s dad is the Albert Einstein of international espionage.

Wellness

Carole Bartolotto: The problem with concluding that GMOs are safe is that the argument for their safety rests solely on animal studies. These studies are offered as evidence that the debate over GMOs is over. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Environmentalism

Walker Foley: Elected officials seem to think there’s only one side of this property rights argument. The people who live in these communities have rights too, but the oil companies seem to have the jump on [the politicians’] side of the fence.